Enough is enough
by FoulkseyDarkRose
Summary: Set sometime during Marked, When Erin decides to be 'herself' at last... there are some unexpected consquenses.
1. The Beginning

**Yay, my second story ever!****This one is not set during any of the books, but is maybe halfway through Marked - if you want. Please review!**

Chapter One

Erin POV

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Zoey Redbird was the most erratic slug I had ever met. Sure, when she first joined House of Night, Zoey had seemed cool. Everyone talked about her weirdly filled in mark as though it were the best damn thing that had happened in years, even since Aphrodite Da Font and Eric Night apparently started getting together again.

In other words, I was a bit jealous. Not as though I would ever admit it, not even to Shaunee. Zoey had it so easy; she was pretty, smart and all the guys love her. Me? Well, she just makes me look like another Californian girl.

To be honest, I wish I looked more like Zoey, sadly.

Right now, by the way, I'm stood next to her in the dinner queue. She's like 5ft.5 or something, so much smaller than me, with the dark hair and eyes which always accompanies the heroines in the supernatural crap Damien reads. Eurgh.

"Erin, what's up?" She asks me, her brown eyes baring up into my icy blue, full of concern.

"Uh? No I'm just thinking," I say quickly, picking up an apple to distract myself. In the corner of my eye, I can see she's frowning. Something wrong sugar.. not enough boys drooling over you?

"That's bullpoopie and you know it!" Zoey snaps venomously, surprising the hell outta me.

"Zoey-"

"No," She stops me and grabs my arm, dragging me towards our usual table. As we break out of the lunch queue and pass among the tables, people leer at me. God only knows why. This whole thing, whole school was getting seriously boring. Zoey Shmoey: who cares? I just want to shop until I die. And that will be years and years away - since I'm _changing into a vampire and all. _Did I forget to mention that?

Zo swings me into a seat next to Stevie Rae. She looks freakishly angry.

"What? Did you want my apple?" I ask her innocently before turning to Stevie Rae and shrugging. She looks worried, too. I look down at the apple in my hands, considering whether to eat it or not. They do contain a lot of sugars and too much sugar ...

Zoey clicks her fingers in my face.

"Erin, if you haven't noticed, we have a problem!" Zoey whispers urgently, as though I care.

"Y'all just calm down now, Z. Erin probably hasn't heard yet," Stevie Rae drawls in an oddly calming way. I look over at her again, leaving my apple dilemma for later on, and rise my eyebrow at what bumpkin is wearing. The usual: cowboy boots, jeans and... oh Gawd she's even wearing a cowboy hat today. A Cowboy. Hat. _Note to self: take Stevie shopping next time Zoey wants to sneak out to see Heath. _Speaking of that hot mess...

"- How's Heath?" Slips out from my mouth, interrupting whatever Zo was saying, which was probably something about the end of the world. The Normal Stuff.

"Heath..," She cringed, "you weren't listening to a thing I said were you?"

I looked at my apple again. _Busted,_ I thought rather devilishly as I took a decided bite.

"Mnopeh," I say around the apple mush. Stevie Rae laughs, her short curly bob shivering as she giggles. Awww.

"You mean _nope, _right?"

"Actually, what she means is _no_. You three really need to learn english," says the boy slipping into the space on my other side, Damien. I smile as he dumps his spotless rucksack under the wooden table and sits.

"Ah, how's my little dictionary of gay today then?" I ask him, ignoring Zoey's scowling face opposite me. I've annoyed her so much she had to sit down.

Damien's laugh turns out in a snigger, "I am perfectly fine thank you," He uses his food-free finger to point towards Zoey, "but obviously she isn't -"

"No. It's Zo's time of the month, apparently."

"Oh," Damien's cheeks bloom to a cherry red colour, the little innocent kid. Honestly, if he insists on hanging out with us girls and _not_ the boy members of our group...

"HEY!" Zoey shouts, causing the background mumbling of the dinner hall to succumb completely. Did I say she was a Drama Queen? And A-star grade?

"W-WHAT?" I shout back, without my heart in it. In fact, I was laughing my head off at how shocked she was. Zo look like she wanted to bite my head off. Wait.. no.. she looks like that with everyone who is taller than her short ass. My bad.

Then, just as Z is about to open her mouth again, Aphrodite Da Font and Eric Night walk into the silent room. Arm in Arm - obviously the rumour mill was correct for once.

"Who's died, your Nerd Herd mascot?" Aphrodite sneers from the doorway, her perfectly manicured fingers wrapped around Eric's arm in a cobra like grip. I turn to face the Queen Bitch herself, and actually smiled widely at her. She locked eyes with me and winked.

"Nice to see you, A." I say from across the room, cheerfully.

"You too, E babe!" She replies, matching my tone exactly, smiling widely like she won an Oscar or something.

I rise from our table, apple in hand, and walk over to her. Stevie Rae and Zoey whispering something at my retreating back, not that I care anymore. Damien and Eric remain silent. Boys will be boys.

When I reach Aphrodite, we hug, and glance back at Zoey's face.

It's priceless.

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**Want to know what's gotten into Erin? **

**Wait for the next chapter to find out Zoey's theory!**


	2. The Decision

Nyx POV

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Nyx looked down at her children with a proud smile on her face. All over the world, Fledglings and Vampyres alike were making the moral choices and denouncing Darkness. In England, her children were growing more and more brave by the day. In Canada, the fledglings began to take more risks and trusting themselves. In Shanghai, the vampyres were developing nicely. Then she looked on America to see her Blessed one, Zoey Redbird, when someone made a wrong decision...

Nyx's vision of the world below clouded as she zoomed closer to one child of Water. She gasped. That was not right at all. Erin Bates had done something with the ability to change the world. Forever.

"Erebus!"she called.

He didn't reply. Something deep inside her froze over, worry set in. First, Erin rejected the Chosen one.. then Erebus didn't come as promptly as he usually did. Things were certainly becoming strange.

"Erebus, come here"

He still didn't reply.

Sighing, Nyx turned gracefully back to the floating orb, watching as Erin's image walked across a room towards Aphrodite. There was more than just petty teenage drama to this. She just couldn't figure out what exactly.

"Yes, my lady?" came a voice right behind her ear, causing Nyx to jump and spin around suddenly.

"Erebus," She whispered, forcing the tension she had to slip away from her. The Consort before her chuckled and walked towards her.

"What was wrong, my liege?"

"I don't fully understand, yet."

He frowned, "Yet?"

Nyx stepped towards him, her golden angle, and held his arm to steady herself as she thought. It was true, she loved all her children equally. She just gifted some more than others because she knew they alone had the mental power to harness such power. Erin was one of those children.

Nyx's gaze fell on a mirror nearby. Her hair was also blonde, but she could alter that if she wanted. She could be physically anything... anyone. And at this very moment, she looked like an older Erin. Nyx didn't know why, but it made her feel more alive to mirror a different one of her night children occasionally.

"Nyx?"

"Hmm?"

"What do you intend to do?" Erebus said, wrapping his arms around her waist, and looking over her shoulder towards the mirror.

"I intend to watch," The beautiful goddess replied when their eyes met. Her decision was made, her chess piece movements clear in her mind's eye. She just didn't know who was the other player in this puzzle.

"W-Watch?" The Warrior angel stammered, visibly confused at the sudden change in the mood of his lady.

Nyx smile widened in the mirror image of the two. She felt the familiar ideas of a plan forming. Nature did not allow, nor was it in her wishes, to take away a Night Child's free will. But it did allow her to.._test _them.

"You know I will watch out for my children, Erebus, always and forever." She said firmly, steeling herself for what she was about to tell her smiling Warrior.

"Always and forever."

"Then I need you to do something for me."

"Anything." He agreed, sounding as eager as Zoey did that first day of her vampyre life. How proud Nyx had been at that moment... she turned her body again, to face the Warrior behind her. There was not a time for remembrance. This was a time for action.

"Find the White Bull of Darkness, and bring him here."

Erebus paled, mouth hung open wide, and stared at her as though she had gone mad.

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**Humm, what's this got to do with the White Bull? Obviously if you haven't read the later books, you wouldn't understand that. But don't worry. All will be revealed.**


	3. The Misguided

**Erin's POV**

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I know it was wrong, and that I shouldn't be friends with her. I just can not help it but like Aphrodite, she was nice to me. She was simple. If she hated what you were wearing, she told you. If you had done really bad on an exam, she told you to get over it. I needed that clarity and it made sense: me being the water element and all.

"So," Aphrodite says, dragging out the word comically, "this is awkward."

It certainly is. Zoey was staring at me still, even though we had left the room. Now, Aphrodite and I giggle in the doorway of the Dinner Hall. May as well revel in all the excitement my change of 'alliance' had caused. The students whisper to each other, looking between Zoey and the door as though expecting a cat fight.

"I think we'd better go, A." I whisper as Zoey's face starts to burn bright red. Woops, I only wanted to shock her, not kill her brain cells.

"Yeh, you're right," She nods, but turns to go back into the room to shout, "See ya later, Nerds!" Cracking a smile, I realise I no longer hold a Nerd-Herd zombie status; I was free. Not many people could say that.

Aphrodite grabs my arm again, and drags me towards the dormitories across the campus of the House of Night. Students along our route look at us strangely, mirroring the students in the dining hall. But I don't care. I'm walking arm in arm with a girl who _gets _me and not because of some freakish Twin thing - like me and Shaunee.

Aphrodite and I are friends because we share common interests; just like regular people who _aren't_ going through the Change into vampirism. Those lucky people who do not have this disease that we suffer from. Our friendship, not that I would ever tell her, made me feel relatively human again.

"This is nice," I say, being the first to break the comfortable silence. I breathe in the clean, food-free air with revel at being closer to nature and my element. Aphrodite gives a little sigh. She had relaxed, too.

"Yeah it is- but Erin, answer me one question?" She asks me, stopping in her tracks. We had reached the dormitories by now, having taken the outside route, and she sits on the old wooden bench situated near the doors. Her perfectly plucked are high brows up her forehead, making her look suddenly younger and sadder. I don't know how to answer this non-question question, so I merely nod.

_Hah,_ I muse to myself,_I just said 'merely'.. see that Damien? English is my thing!_

"Why did you become friends with me?" says the girl who, until recently, I had called a soulless Hag from Hell. The truth is, I just felt the need to do it. To break from Zoey and be as free as a bird. No-one, not even my so-called Twin Shaunee, had noticed how ever since Z came... I was no longer wanted. I am invisible most of the time, nowadays, because Zoey's sitcom worthy drama filled up every minute of every damn day. I hadn't spent five minutes with my friends before someone - anyone - mentioned her by name. _Five minutes, that's all I wanted. Five minutes. _

"I needed a friend. And there you were." I paraphrase my inner monologue; friends be we may but I don't want to use her as my own personal bloody diary. That's what Zoey does and that had excluded me from the group I had brought together. Wind blows my hair. Inevitable, wind comes to ruin the hair do for the millionth time. To distract myself from getting annoyed at Damien's element, I look down. I see Aphrodite frowns below me, still perching on edge of the bench.

"I would never have been friends with a Nerd-Herder. But you came to me, remember?" she says wrongly, obviously still trying to scrape some dignity. I could remember the day she came to dave me. I felt really, really lonely. Sitting... _where?_ Um, I sat in my room. No, the common room. No - _Arghhh!_

"Oh my Gawd, what's wrong with my head!?" I squeal and clutch my head as though trying to unlock the secrets inside, causing the girl to jump up and hug me with surprising warmth. I haven't been hugged for months.

"Nothing. I found you standing outside my dorm room, in your pyjamas and you were crying. But you're tears were milky, almost. It was totally gross. Anyway, I let you in since..." She looks away now, seemingly embarrassed.

"...since you just couldn't leave a girl outside your door all night?"

"Exactly! I didn't want to you to go all _Psycho-shower-scene_ on my ass. Anyway, I let you in and the next morning you acted like we were best friends. It was really weird."

I stare at her with my mouth open like an ugly idiot. I had cried tears of milk and suddenly acted like I was best friends with a girl I used to envy? _Seriously?! _Is she kidding me?

"But why didn't you just send me away, then?" I ask her innocently, eyes wide, expecting a sarcastic comment which would be sad but true to form. Unusually, it never came.

"I needed a friend, too. Not that I'll ever admit to saying that a-a-, " Aphrodite stares at the door with want clear on her face, tears bruising her eyes just like mine are.

"Shut up, let's go watch _Mean Girls_." I tell her, hoping she will stop crying at the prospect of watching Lindsay Lohan's character make an ass out of herself.

"Okay," She smiles sweetly at me as she jumps up to open the glass door to the dormitories, "_Mean Girl 2_?"

"You have to ask? The second one as totally bullpoopie!"

"Speaking of non-cuss words... did you see Zoey's face?"

"It was priceless!" We accidentally say in unison, before bursting into giggle fits as we enter the building.

I could get used to this.

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**Author note: Sorry for such a long wait between uploads; I got writer's block and couldn't remember were this story was going.. but it's all okay now! Hope you liked this chapter :)**

**-FoulkseyDarkRose**


	4. Chapter 4

**Nyx POV**

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"The white bull is approaching the Gates, ma'lady." The muffled voice of her consort informed the night goddess as he re-entered the chamber. Nyx was lying like a child, curled into a foetus on a blackened velvet bed, rolling under masses of comfort. Her brain was abuzz. Alive. Confused, "What's wrong?" his voice softened further.

"I don't- I cannot-"

"Deep breaths, lovely love," Erebus spoke smoothly like a harp, cool yet it soothes the goddess slightly. The problem was Nyx never liked the Bulls, either of them. Beasts whom caused havoc over centuries due to an ancient rivalry, so old even she did not know the true story. In a moment of weakness, of human-like fear, did she invite the White Bull.

"I need to face him,"

"I understand." A strong hand grazed her naked back, delivering the much-needed assurance. A Goddess of Night could surely face such a vulgar animal. What was there to fear?

"You do not, Erebus. Not even I, who know most, can justify this. I cannot reason with a crook. Therefore I cannot reason with a beast of the bad. Of evil -"

"Hinder not your meeting, Goddess, to explain such business to me."

"- You are right, of course." Nyx sat up decidedly, pushed away the covers and ordered them to vanish once more. Them, with a critical eye of black and gold, she swept her gaze around the infinite room, the chamber, the field. The possibilities of her power where almost endless, "I must change, my dear."

"Yes," Erebus stood faster than Kalona ever did, "My Nyx." And with a flourished bow her perfect golden man left her alone. Before she even began her magic, she felt their distance apart in her huge heart. A heart which, over time, had collected many loved ones and lost just the same. To love someone so strongly, no matter who they maybe, as she did would have destroyed a mortal. The overpowering grief would have been too much. This grief, and shame, is what Nyx hoped to believe is what turned the White Bull to the darkness.

For that meant there was hope for him, too.

Nyx stood still for a long while. Staring and staring at the glowing orb which had first brought to light Erin's actions. The actions which were devastating for the world. _I cannot tell anyone, _She swore, _for they would not empathise with me. With my mistake. _She touched the face of Erin with a gentle longing. Nyx wanted to be there to help her child, for the powers at play were beyond the young fledgling. For all the goddess knew, they maybe beyond even herself. The idea of this kept her awake, often.

With a flick of her hand the image of Erin Bates expanded. Nyx only wished to see her eyes for the eyes are the windows to one's true soul; not by how they look but by how they _see_. To see good is to be good and to see hate is to feel hate. Nyx felt she had failed if any of her children felt the latter. Her job was to guide them, to protect the children of the faith and the Night.

When the zooming stopped, Nyx gasped. There in the corner. There was the answer. Now she definitely knew no-one would understand at all, not one person would compute to the past of her actions. _Their_ actions. Only one person would and she could not trust them totally. They had too many people around them, too many to die.

THe Goddess ran a delicate hand through her flowing hair. She had no colouring, for certain colouring would be inequality. At the moment, however, she chose to change. She altered her hair colour to match Zoey Redbird's. She, whom Nyx had gifted so well, would be the only person in the world to understand. To understand, _What I did_.

_Dear Heavenly Father,_ Nyx prayed upwards to the man who she always wished to please, I_ pray to thee for guidance as your blood daughter in faith, smoke and bones. My mistakes are only now coming into play, upon this board of chess where I am the sacrificial pawn. He is coming - I asked for him out of a lack of courage. I think he knows, Father. Of what I did. Of what made you sent me to this place of Good and Evil. As always, I beg your forgiveness. Please protect my children, you know of what I speak. _

Nyx stood up, wished her Father love, and began on the change of scenery. By the time her wisps of white, pure magic had created her own illusionist's trick. The room appeared as though it was that of a monarch's - similar to the architecture so common among the medieval period across all lands - the Bull had arrived. She sensed its presence even before Erebus, she knew, because he gave a great cry.

Not out of fear, by Nyx's faith, but out of awe.

The beast entered the chamber on its powerful, convulsing hind legs. Its horns shone and merely grew more attention to how dangerous this animal was. _Do not underestimate the monster,_ Nyx's inner voice cautioned her. The Goddess had never discovered who possessed this inner voice, for she was the one who spoke for many others but not herself.

Then the beast spoke, "Nyx, Oh, Goddess of the Night and all Vampyres: why do you call upon me?" Nyx suppressed an unvoluntary shiver and grew confidence upon Erebus's assuring gaze. She took a breath, adjusting the dress of white and black which swayed in the cool breeze around her ankles. As she completed this task of basic etiquette, the Bull's eyes covered with a strange gleam.

And then the Goddess fell.

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**Author's Note: C'est tres interessant, oui? Je suis désolée mais le problème principale c'est que j'adore parler le francais! Haha but I suck at french... though I might include some just to frustrate my french readers;) Je suis trés désolée!**


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